


Observations of the Witchy Kind

by JoLau



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Mentor-Apprentice relationship, dumps most of my witch biology headcanons in one place, eda gently sliding into mom-mode, feel-good fic, no beta we die like men, post-YBOS, take this and enjoy your meal, witches are like cats but also elves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27278062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoLau/pseuds/JoLau
Summary: Luz has lived on the Boiling Isles for roughly a month. That's plenty of time for her to take note of how, despite looking pretty close to human, witches are definitely very not human.ORLuz has been writing down her observations of witch-kind, and Eda has plenty of knowledge to share.
Relationships: Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda
Comments: 19
Kudos: 134
Collections: All things Disney





	Observations of the Witchy Kind

**Author's Note:**

> Very excited to share this here on AO3. TOH has held the reins of my brain since I first started watching it. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy, dear reader. Constructive feedback is very much encouraged!

Luz has lived on the Boiling Isles for roughly a month. That's plenty of time for her to take note of how, despite _looking_ pretty close to human, witches are definitely _very_ _not human_. Human-adjacent or human-like for sure. But so, so different. 

Luz has begun to write down said differences in a notebook. That's not weird, right? Gus materializes a notepad or his scroll whenever Luz talks about the human realm, so it's probably not weird. If it is, no one's said anything.

Not that Luz writes down her findings in plain sight. For the most part. 

She learned her lesson when Boscha immolated the first edition of Luz's observations when the human pulled the book from her bag to scribble down notes on the subtleties of witch body language during a confrontation between their cliques. 

It was tragic.

Now Luz has to start again from the beginning. Takin' it from the top. While she's stuck in the Owl House because she  _ may _ have made a personal enemy of Emperor Belos. Eda (and Lillith but Luz couldn't give a hoot (ha!) about what Lillith has to say) said to give it a few days before going back to school. Bump isn't a stooge, sure, but the Emperor's Coven has quite a lot of weight to throw around if there was a warrant out for Luz's arrest. 

Anyway, school's not safe, Luz is effectively grounded for three days, and she has an empty notebook to fill. 

It's time for her to channel her inner David Attenborough.

Eda's reclined on the sofa with her nose in a battered volume of Chicken Soup for the Soul when Luz creeps down the stairs with all the quiet caution she can manage (it isn't a lot). Eda's long, pointed ear twitches subtly. That's Luz's first sign that she's been noticed. The second sign is the dimpling of Eda's cheek as her bored expression twitches into one of exasperated endearment.

"Whatcha plottin', kiddo?" Eda hums as Luz opens the cover of her notebook (a spare one that Gus had, and gave to her after the heartless destruction of its predecessor) and slinks to the couch. Luz peers at the profile of Eda's face through narrowed eyes, scrutinizing from her spot on the floor next to the couch. 

When Luz doesn't answer, Eda looks at the girl from the edge of her vision, golden eye twinkling. "Everything alright?"

"...What are the little tendons that make your ears flappy called," Luz lifts her pencil, poising it over a blank line on a page dedicated entirely to witchy ears, "because I forgot and it's important." Eda snorts at that, one of her shoulders rolling up in a lazy shrug.

"I dunno. Flappy-flexers. Swishy sinews. Twitchy tendons." The Owl Lady lists off, clearly not taking this research as seriously as Luz. "You probs won't have much luck finding a respectable anatomy book in my collection. Lily probably-  _ definitely _ \- knows, though."

Luz's face scrunches in distaste. Eda snorts at that, too. Not because Luz is intensely adverse to asking Lillith much of anything, but because the kid's cute, wide nose gets a  _ downright adorable _ wrinkle when she makes that face. Eda regards Luz's soured expression with a sympathetic: "I know." 

Luz turns her attention to the page. "Make sure to… ask… about… ear twitchies… when… I get… back to school." She scratches down beneath a slew of doodles regarding ear positions and their corresponding moods. 

Eda turns her head now to properly look down at said doodles with her brows quirked up curiously. Luz stiffens some, a nanosecond-long debate running through her head based around whether or not she should hide her precious research from Eda in fear of offending the witch, but Eda doesn't seem offended in the least. No, she looks pretty amused, actually; as usual.

"You writing a report or something, kid? That's a lot of notes you got there." Eda gestures with her hand, book lying splayed on her stomach, forgotten. 

"Oh! Um, yeah! Kind of." Luz holds the book out for Eda to take, barely hesitating. Eda plucks the notebook from Luz's hand and browses the page with more interest than she'd offered Chicken Soup for the Soul. "Witches and humans look so alike, but act pretty differently, y'know? So I decided to jot down the stuff that really sticks out to me!" Luz tells her mentor, grinning her adorable, excitable grin. "I suppose I could've just picked up an etiquette book somewhere and gone through it…"

"And subject yourself to hours of boring, musty reading? Nonsense!" Eda scoffs good-naturedly, flicking backwards through the pages of Luz's notes. "In my experience, the most lucrative research is the hands-on stuff. I learned a heck of a lot more about how to be a 'proper lady' by acting halfway feral at a fancy dinner party and having my at-the-time schmooze of a beau yap at me for my 'poor social protocol.' Did you know that the rich  _ hate _ it when you fail to compliment their richness after being prompted several times to do just that?"

"I did not know that." Maybe that was something Luz should keep in mind should she ever get the chance to hang out at Amity and the Twins' house.

"Yeah, it puts them into a polite little passive-aggressive  _ frenzy _ . I didn't say squat about the hostess' wife's billion-snail ball gown and they lost their mind. Bet they thought they tore a strip clean off my ego, but I yoinked at least two dozen glitzy brooches in under an hour, so I wasn't even mad." Eda closes the notebook and passes it back toward Luz. "All the stuff you noted down is basic witch body language, Luz. It's kinda interesting that you find it so strange."

"Not strange! It's  _ neat _ . Sometimes confusing. But mostly neat." Luz could draw several parallels to witch body language and human-realm animal body language, but she doesn't say that. It might be rude.

"What's confusing?"

"Weeeell…" 

Eda turns onto her side on the sofa and pats the bare space in front of her stomach. Luz hops into place, leaning back comfortably into her mentor's warmth. "Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a smile and a snarl. Like, the person'll be  _ smiling _ , but obviously showing off their very  _ very _ pointy teeth, and that confuses my human sensibilities. Very cool, by the way, I do envy me some fangs." 

"Eh, don't. At your age, they constantly fall out and grow back for the next couple'a years. Tops  _ and _ bottoms, eugh."

Luz discreetly opens her notebook to a fresh page. "Please, do go on." She doesn't even  _ try _ to hide her anticipation for new information.

"Well, alright. So, kids usually lose their 'baby' fangs at about, eh, Gus' age. It's a big deal for kids. The first sign of puberty. Little do they know, they'll spend the next five-or-so years losing fangs  _ constantly _ as their bodies start to change." Eda cringes, clearly remembering something ghastly from her teen years. "Since the growth spurt from teen to adult can be pretty drastic, the body spends a lot of time rearranging things so everything's proportionate. Teeth included. Especially the ol' pointies." 

Luz scribbles down notes so fast, Eda's surprised her paper doesn't catch alight. "I noticed that adults in the Boiling Isles are a lot taller than teenagers. Which is kinda wild, considering that in the human realm, vertical growth for people typically stops around the age of fourteen for girls, and seventeen for boys." Luz pulls her legs up to sit criss-cross, contemplative. 

"Here on the Isles, there isn't a lot of difference between girls and boys and what-have-you for when puberty stops. Mostly it varies from gene pool to gene pool. Some hit their max height sooner than others and vice versa. But the standard time it takes for a witch to finish growing skyward is a few years; I got tall really fast, though. Typically, kids who're eighteen to twenty are done getting their bones stretched by hormones. I finished  _ my _ growth spurt at about sixteen years old. Which is way sooner than normal." 

"...witch bones  _ stretch _ ?" 

"Well, yeah. How else could I have grown two and a half handspans taller over one season?"

"Uh, what's a handspan? In imperial measurements."

"Kid, I've lived my entire adult life running from the law. I don't know what sort of measurements they use."

"No- ugh, nevermind. Show me instead?" 

Luz stretches out her hand out in front of her, mimicking Eda. "A handspan is the length of space between the bottom of the palm and the tip of the middle finger. Nails excluded." Eda tells her. "It's not exact since everyone comes in different sizes, but I was blessed with being average height, so I don't have to do much estimation." 

Luz takes Eda's outstretched hand in her own; Eda lets her without complaint, watching their joined hands while Luz cups her fingers over Eda's knuckles, examining the witch's hand from the notch of her palm to the tip of her middle finger. She can practically see the gears turning in her kid's head, running comparisons to human units of measurement. Watches as Luz flips to the very back of the notebook and jots down conversion formulas and numbers and stuff that makes Eda roll her upper lip over her teeth. Ick.  _ Arithmetic _ . But it's interesting to watch, because Luz makes the most mundane things interesting (Eda is sure she would find that ironic, for some reason), and Luz is pretty dang quick with numbers. 

"'Kay, so your hand is roughly eight inches from palm to fingertip, which means that a handspan is about that much. Eight-times-two-plus-four equals twenty… now divide that by twelve… is one-point-six, with the six repeating." Luz looks at Eda with her eyes the size of saucers. "You grew more than a foot and a half in  _ three months _ ?!"

"Two months and a half." Eda replies, not missing an opportunity to boast. "It doesn't usually go that quick, but I guess the curse accelerated my growth. What with the shapeshifting and all that. Don't make that face, kiddo, it's alright." Eda takes Luz's hand in hers, holding the girl's gently curled fist with a tenderness that's exclusively for Luz. "Getting taller faster was pretty advantageous for a young wild witch. It made getting into trouble a heck of a lot easier, for one. And I rarely got checked for ID whenever I went anywhere that required it." Eda grins at Luz with her patented troublemaker's smile, her pale hand giving Luz's a squeeze. Luz gives her a gentle smile in return, eyes glittery-soft, and Eda swears that her heart swells at the sight of those big, beautiful, brown doe-eyes. So of course she redirects their conversation. "You mentioned that human bones don't grow. So how's all that business work?" 

Luz uses the hand not in Eda's to write down a few points she hadn't yet after turning back to her notes. "Human babies are born with more bones than mature humans," Luz replies, "and they're a lot more soft than an adult's bones. As the baby grows up, the small bones fuse together to make larger, stronger bones for adulthood." Luz notes Eda not-so-subtly tweaking her knucklebones. "I've still got some baby bones, I think. Or at the very least, they're toughening up." 

"Huh." Remarks Eda. "That's a bit grotesque, honestly. No offense." 

Luz just laughs, eyes squinting with mirth. "Yeah. It makes babies and young kids really rubbery.  _ Especially _ babies. Since their bones are so soft when they're first born, they need their head and neck supported for a while after birth. As for slightly older kids, it makes them weirdly indestructible."

" _ That _ is something I have learned over the past thirty-or-so days." Eda chuckles, nudging Luz's side with her elbow. Luz giggles some more, squeezing Eda's hand, and delights when the witch clasps their fingers together. The pads of Eda's fingers squish the skin between Luz's knuckles. 

The gap of silence is pleasant. Peaceful. Luz turns back to the page with all the doodles of pointy ears and refines some of her sketches while Eda is content to simply lie still in her apprentice's company, Luz's back keeping her stomach warm. King meanders over to them at some point from wherever  _ he'd _ been; the little demon settles himself atop the rise of Eda's hip, curled into a perfect circle. Luz murmurs something about his impeccable cuteness and turns back to her doodles and notes. 

Eda's almost dozing when Luz at last says something. 

"Would you mind if I asked you more about witch stuff?" Luz asks; it's now that Eda remembers that their hands are joined as Luz fingers fidget with unspent energy. As usual. 

"Mm, sure, kid. Just don't expect proper terminology or fancy anatomical words. And, I reserve the right to clam up whenever. Not because I don't want to talk," since quiet, relaxed conversations are sorely needed at the current time; and Eda loves Luz's curiosity; and Luz loves Eda's unique brand of wisdom, "but because like I said before, there's nothing quite like field research. And I would  _ love  _ to read notes about a social squabble between two witchlings from your pure point of view. I have a feeling I'd get a kick out of that." 

"Oh, right! I have to document that  _ again _ ." Freaking Boscha and her freaking immolation spell. Luz huffs and tilts her head back, the back of her skull resting on a pillow made of King's fur and squeaky half-snores. "Gonna be hard to do that out of sight."

Eda lifts their joined hands to wave hers, and Luz returns her own hand to her lap to rest upon her notebook. "I'll teach you how to brew a temporary invisibility elixir. The curse might've taken my magic, but I don't need magic to mix up a potion. And you never know, maybe those marrowhawk eyes of yours will see a pattern for an invisibility glyph." 

"Can we do it now?" Luz asks, and for her eagerness, Eda gives her curly hair a fond ruffling. 

"Not just yet, pipsqueak. I'm gonna have to go through my stores and make sure I actually have what the elixir needs. The ingredients aren't rare, mind you, but the shimmernewts are notoriously tricky to spot. Which is exactly why they're a key ingredient. But if I'm honest, I'm more put off by the thought of organizing my potions pantry." Eda snorts. "Eugh, yup, keeping that stuff in order now that I can't just wave a hand and magic what I need into my hand is gonna be a pain."

Luz closes her notebook. "I can help. I like to organize things!" She bounces with anticipation. King snuffles in his sleep.

"I was going to employ your assistance in any case, but it's a bonus that you like to sort things out." Eda smiles wryly. "But let's procrastinate for a bit longer. Ask me your greatest curiosities about witches." 

Luz has to sit still and actually think for a moment; the notion of doing a different, new thing completely blanked her brain. "There is  _ one _ thing," she mumbles at last, "that's been on my mind for a while. And even if I've proven it to be contrary, thank you very much, I can't help but think about how you and the others have called me fragile. Like, as a human. As in: humans are fragile."

"You remember when we met, and my hand detached on the ride back from the Bonesborough market?" Luz nods an affirmative. As if she could forget! "And then later that same day, Warden Creepazoid lopped my head off? And despite that I kept talking, and my body kept moving on its own?" Luz dips her head again. Yet another unforgettable moment. Eda quirks one side of her mouth higher than the other. "Something tells me disembodied hands and decapitation are sort of end-of-the-line injuries for humans."

Luz ponders that for a bit. "You're not wrong," the girl concedes sheepishly. "But I mean just in  _ general _ . You and Amity have both said that I'm fragile. So like… besides the cutting of limbs and the severing of heads, what do you  _ mean _ ?"

Eda drums her nails against the cushion beneath her. "Weeelp," the Owl Lady hums, "you get bruises and scrapes a heck of a lot easier than any witch- and not because of your rambunctious nature. Your skin's not as thick, or tough, or whatever. What you can lift versus what a witchling of your size and age can is, well, sorry to say it, honey, but there's no contest." 

Luz grumbles, upset; but she knows Eda is right. Willow and Amity wheeled those huge vessels full of dense abomination goop to and around the school as if it were nothing more than a wheelbarrow full of feathers. "In my defense, I  _ have _ put on some muscle since I got here."

"Uh-huh." Eda rings her fingers and thumb around Luz's scrawny nerd arm. She smirks at her kid, silver and gold eyes glittering. "There's definitely improvement here, but I think I need to add some more protein to your diet." 

Luz pouts and harmlessly bats away Eda's hand. Eda chuckles.

"Hmm, how well can you see in the dark? Without the light glyph."

"Not at all."

"Well, that's another point for team Boiling Isles."

Luz has been aware of witches' superior night vision for a while, but the memory that she reminisces first is of that time she caught Amity off-guard in the forest, the taller girl having been doing… something (brooding, probably) in the dark. The way Amity's pupils brightened up, mirror-like, when Luz's light spell illuminated the forest around them. Luz's first thought had been  _ her eyes are really pretty _ followed closely by  _ I'm pretty sure witches are a feline-adjacent species _ . She'd heard plenty of hisses and growls at school. Mostly from fellow Hexolios. 

Actually,

"Do people outgrow the hissing thing, or is that sort of permanent?"

"People grow out of it. Doesn't mean it isn't a useful expletive in adult conversations, though. Heck, I use it pretty often when I deal with crappy customers. But, Luz?"

"¿Si?"

"Do  _ not _ hiss at someone unless you're prepared to seriously throw down. Especially if that someone is older than you."

Luz shrinks a little bit at that. "Is it that bad of an insult?"

Eda replies, "it's not so much an insult as much as it is a challenge. It's like saying  _ come at me, dunderhead, if you dare _ . And you've been here long enough to know how violence is  _ typically _ the first answer to most confrontations." Eda aims a crooked, apologetic smile her way. "Plus, and no offense again, but your blunt li'l teeth aren't threatening at all. No doubt your peers would fly at you with their gums flapping in the wind." 

Luz opens her notebook. She takes up her pencil. She writes this down with a great deal of emphasis:  _ no matter how tempting,  _ **_DO NOT HISS AT BOSCHA._ **

"Any other potential death-sentence inducing witch language I should know about?" Luz asks politely, turning to a new page.

Once upon a time, Eda might have teased Luz and said:  _ "that's for me to know, and you to find out!" _ But the past few days have turned everything on its head, and the thought of Luz coming under threat for saying or doing something with innocent ignorance makes Eda's guts squirm and her fingers itch; instead of her bile sac giving a disquiet pulse, something rooted deep in the pit of her being rears, flashing talons and teeth. So Eda stops and thinks,  _ really _ thinks if there's anything else Luz needs to know, and berates herself for leaving this discussion until now. With a furrow of her brow because the "what-ifs" won't quiet down, Eda at last replies.

"No, hissing is the only for-sure mega-bad social gesture you could perform. I'm not totally up to date with the new lingo, though, so quiz your friends about it when you all get back together, too." 

Luz makes a little note to do just that. Then, "so… what other physical differences jump out at you? Between humans and witches?" 

Eda chews on that thought. She gnaws it, turns it over, then debates whether or not to feed Luz more answers. Eda thinks about it, and realizes that they'd never get off of this couch before moon-high if she and Luz keep talking. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Since the fiasco at the palace, Eda wants to keep an eye on Luz at all times, and no doubt Luz feels similarly- especially with Lillith under the same roof. Whether it's protectiveness for Eda or her own self-preservation finally kicking in, Eda wouldn't dare begrudge Luz for either. She's honored; humbled, even. 

But enough mental tangents. Eda's come to her decision. 

"I think I should leave some mysteries for you to unravel for yourself, kiddo," Eda combs her claws through Luz's hair affectionately. "The best way to learn is by doing."

Luz whines and pouts, but there's no real gravity behind it. The kid's just being fussy for the sake of it, the cute brat, and so Eda chuffs as she scoops King from her hip as she pulls herself up vertical. Gently, she lowers King to the cushion, smack in the middle of her residual warm spot. 

"Speaking of doing," Eda grunts as she stands up, her knees, hip, spine, and whatever else feels like it crackling as she does so, "that potion pantry isn't gonna sort itself. We better get to it, apprentice mine."

Luz quickly replaces her pout with a genuine smile and hops up from the couch. Eda makes for the kitchen while Luz places her things on the coffee table, hurrying after her mentor across the den, hooking her arm into Eda's as they cross the kitchen threshold together. 

**Author's Note:**

> *slaps this fanfic* i can fit so many furry-adjacent headcanons for witches into this baby


End file.
